arithmetical feeling, and that would give me great joy. I don't care
to have them express their honest feelings either about me or the
work, but would rather have them look polite and interested, even if
it is hypocrisy. I'd like to have all my boys and girls act as if
they consider me absolutely fair, just, and upright, as well as the
most kind, courteous, generous, scholarly, skillful, and complaisant
schoolmaster that ever lived, no matter what they really think.




CHAPTER XX

BEHAVIOR

If I only knew how to teach English, I'd have far more confidence in
my schoolmastering. But I don't seem to get on. The system breaks
down too often to suit me. Just when I think I have some lad
inoculated with elegant English through the process of reading from
some classic, he says, "might of came," and I become obfuscated
again. I have a book here in which I read that it is the business of
the teacher so to organize the activities of the school that they
will function in behavior. Well, my boys' behavior in the use of
English indicates that I haven't organized the activities of my
English class very effectively. I seem to be more of a success in a
cherry-orchard than in an English class. My cherries are large and
round, a joy to the eye and delightful to the taste. The fruit
expert tells me they are perfect, and so I feel that I organized the
activities in that orchard efficiently. In fact, the behavior of my
cherry-trees is most gratifying. But when I hear my pupils talk or